The Bar Council of West Bengal is an autonomous regulatory Council constituted under the Advocates Act, 1961 consisting of 26 members. Twenty five of them are elected by the method of proportional representation by single transferable vote. The Advocate General of the State is the ex-officio member. The election to the Council is to take place at the end of five year period to be counted from the date of publication of the result of the election last held. The Council, amongst others, is to admit persons as advocates on its roll and to entertain and determine cases of misconduct against advocates of its roll. It is also to safeguard rights, privileges and interests of advocates on its roll and to promote the growth of Bar Associations. The Bar Council of India is the apex body under the Advocates Act, 1961.

Periodical social audits of justice delivery system in our country from time to time have identified multifarious deficits in the system which deserve to be addressed from all concerned including the judicial officers, advocates and Bar Councils and Bar Associations. In addition the worst malady of corruption made substantial inroads into the system. The system therefore needs to be refurbished and updated to clear the frightening backlog of outstanding cases in various judicial and quasi judicial fora and the advocates, Bar Associations and Bar Councils can make substantially contribution thereto by -

by duly performing their duties to the Court, to the client, to the opponent and to their colleagues;

introducing, adopting and increasing more professionalism in legal work;

actively encouraging and participating in mediation, conciliation and Lok Adalat;

organizing legal aid for the poor both within and outside the provisions of Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987;

by preventing any kind of misunderstanding between the Bar and the Bench and encouraging better understanding between them.

By promoting and supporting judicial and law reforms;

The Bar Council of West Bengal gives a clarion call to all advocates and Bar Associations of the State to rise to the occasion in order to bring down the average waiting period for disposal of matters in Courts and tribunals from 10 to 15 years to 2 to 3 years and raise the efficiency of the justice administration system to make it a matter of envy for all other countries in the world.